Brighton Marina Approved This Time

After years of wrangling between vocal blue rinse nimbys and developer, Brunswick, the planned tower at Brighton Marina has finally been approved by Brighton Council's planning committee.The previous plan was hit back forcing the developer to reduce the density on the lower rise parts of the project and increase the public space within by some 40% whilst sacrificing some of the environmental credentials that the project had thanks to it's conservative allocation of car parking spaces. Councillors were impressed though at the changes made to the scheme that they had asked for enough to support it. Councillor David Watkins who previously opposed the scheme said, "They have taken on board the points we made last time and have come up with an admirable development."The development will cost £235 million and has been designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects. The highlight of it, a signature tower will stand 128 metres tall and have an observation deck at the top that on a clear day you may even be able to see France from. Detailed design-work of the scheme will now commence and the developer hopes that they can begin construction as soon as possible. If the opponents of the scheme get their way however, this will not happen as they are now seeking a judicial review to try and overturn the council's own decision. The sticking point for them is the existence of a tall tower on the project which exceeds the height of the cliff, something prohibited by the Brighton Marina 1968 by-law that banned such a thing anticipating at the time that the tower would be built on the landward side rather than out at sea like these plans. Hoping for a public inquiry or judicial review seems far-fetched however. The government has a poor record of intervening in such cases and when it has done so it has stressed in the findings that height alone cannot be a basis for a public inquiry. Faced with this and such a pro-development record from the government, the 5,000 opponents in Brighton may be peeing in the wind. It's not all good news for tall buildings in Brighton. Frank Gehry is being forced to withdraw his King Arthur scheme after it has been savaged by everyone going ranging from CABE to English Heritage and most importantly Brighton Council who have stressed the current designs are unacceptable and will not be allowed to go forwards despite the developer, Karis's, belief that the scheme is still suitable for development.Back to the drawing board then for Frank in what's become a long winding saga.